The Panhellenic Council at Murray State is considering including a new sorority chapter to the Greek Life community already including 11 Interfraternity Council organizations, seven national Panhellenic Council organizations and five Panhellenic organizations.

Once they have a coordinator of Greek Life who is actually in charge things could change wildly, especially if that person knows what he/she is doing. I could see some scenarios where expansion could happen. The one that jumps to mind first is chapter total is currently 90 and the chapters work within that structure, but they'd really PREFER for total to be 60. Or 50. But that doesn't answer why they haven't just lowered total, except for a lack of leadership to tell them to do the obvious.

But when Edmund posted the job opening, what I thought of is the OP is applying for that job and was doing his research. And if that's the case, we provided him a MOUNTAIN of knowledge about how it works.

__________________"Traveling - It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~ Ibn Battuta

DS. we might have provided the OP with "a MOUNTAIN of knowledge", but I'm willing to bet it isn't going to be processed, retained, or applied. That observation is based on his responses in this thread to the posts by a variety of GC members.

DS. we might have provided the OP with "a MOUNTAIN of knowledge", but I'm willing to bet it isn't going to be processed, retained, or applied. That observation is based on his responses in this thread to the posts by a variety of GC members.

I agree completely. Information provided doesn't mean information absorbed. I guess we'll have to have a spy on the look out for a gay fraternity man as the new head of Greek Life at this school. It is possible he really was just playing devil's advocate to see what the responses would be to use them to his advantage. But I doubt it. Who knows?

__________________"Traveling - It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~ Ibn Battuta

The reason there is an opening is because the previous Coordinator of Greek Life and Student Organizations at Murray State left the position to become the Coordinator of New Student Programs at Murray State affective the start of this spring 2012 semester. As I understand it, this is a promotion.

Tara is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and has worked with/in Greek life offices before at Ohio State, Miami University and Northwestern State.

I'll dig my Key out and see what I can confirm. I seem to recall that ZTA recently colonized there, too. I'm kind of thinking that NYU just opened to national organizations or to expansion in general. They are in a growth phase, no doubt. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here.

The Key stated that there are still two locals on campus at NYU. Looks like the last decade has seen a surge in national organizations after the 1960s weren't so kind to NPC groups. Anyone know any history here?

I'm happy to shed a little light on NYU Greek life. Between the sororities and fraternities, NYU actually has a very long history of Greek life with several Alpha or founding chapters (AEPi, DPhiE, Zeta Psi), and many chapters that have been around since very early on in their national organization's history. I think one of the biggest reasons for the sharp decline in groups in the late 60s-early 70s was the fact that, prior to that, NYU had multiple campuses, including a campus in the Bronx (called University Heights). UH was actually really the main campus for the undergraduate programs from the late 1890s until it was sold by NYU in 1973 to avoid bankruptcy. The UH campus was very much a traditional-style college campus, complete with Greek housing, a quad, etc. I think that when the undergrad program was shifted to the Washington Square campus (where NYU is today, in lower Manhattan), the school became more of a commuter institution and the interest in Greek life (especially chapters lacking any kind of "home base" or anything) tapered off.

Things really picked up again over the last 10-15 years. There were a number of local sororities founded (5 in total). One was absorbed by AST and around the same time, AEPhi recolonized. Another one of the locals was closed a few years later, but recruitment numbers actually started to take off around the same time (total was raised from the low 60's to 82) and Panhel began to look at extension. Pi Phi came to campus in 2009, but Panhel considered extension again almost immediately because even with a new chapter and a higher total, there was an increasing demand for Greek life. As Panhel considered extension again, one of the three remaining locals was discussing national affiliation and made that known to Panhel. What ended up taking place was sort of a dual extension process...the NPC was notified that NYU was open for extension for both a ground-up colonization AND the absorption of a local and groups were invited to be considered for one or the other or both. A number of organizations submitted packets for consideration. The local selected Kappa and Panhel selected ZTA for colonization. Both chapters were installed last semester.

I will be interested to see if extension is in NYU's future again soon; obviously, a lot of it depends upon the success of the ZTA and Kappa chapters in the next few semesters. I'm pretty certain that neither of the remaining two locals are interested in affiliating with a national group. I also know there were some membership issues with AST this past semester and about half of their chapter was dismissed by nationals, so it may be some time before all of the NPC chapters are at total again.

Thanks. That was interesting. It seems urban campuses are really latching onto Greek life lately (I'm thinking of the Chicago schools in particular as examples), so maybe there's a change in thinking about what it means to go to a commuter school and the desired level of personal attachment to that school. And I can think of several reasons why more relatively small chapters makes more sense than fewer mammoth ones, the biggest being the size of available meeting spaces.

__________________"Traveling - It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~ Ibn Battuta